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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Lauren Smith feels that she should consider herself a lucky girl—she has a good life, a wonderful best friend, and the most popular guy in school, Dave, is dating her, despite Lauren's lowly social status. Yet she can't seem to muster up the feeling of being truly happy. Her life is thrown into disarray when Evan Kirkland, son of her dad's first girlfriend, comes back to town. Lauren finds herself drawn to him, and she feels truly relaxed and happy when she’s with him. But she's also torn between her familiar place with Dave and the plans he's making for the both of them, and exciting, sincere Evan. It doesn't take Lauren long to realize that soon she'll have to face her feelings and make a decision completely uninfluenced by those around her, no matter the consequences.

Bloom is a heartfelt and surprisingly realistic read that has the ability to reach many teen girls. While Scott portrays Lauren as generally a "good girl", her flaws and mistakes are also evident, making it easy for the reader to fall in love with her rather than think less of her. Her confusion when it comes to her love life may frustrate readers, but every thought and insecurity and hang-up she has is genuine. Scott's knack for how the teen social scene works is also remarkable, and will stand out while causing empathy for the characters. At times Bloom reads like one of those "books with covers that promised girls who seemed to be just like me" that Lauren disparages, but Scott's imperfect ending, the numerous mistakes characters make, and flawed relationships resemble real life perfectly and cause Bloom to transcend those stereotypical inspirational books with its authentic voice that deals with the complexity of relationships, both familial and romantic with a genuine and down to earth air.

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Formerly a YA book blog, TheCompulsiveReader.com is now the personal bookish blog of YA writer Tirzah Price! For more frequent dispatches about books, writing, and general nonsense, check out Book Riot, head over to Twitter or follow TirzahPrice on Litsy!